It was learned from Sports Bureau of Tibet Autonomous Region that Tibetan rock climbing has seen new development with a rock climbing team being officially established a few days ago.

Sonam Gyatso, Head coach of Tibet’s rock climbing team, said that there are currently 12 members to the team and training takes place in Lhasa and Ganzhou. He added that, despite the environment in Lhasa not being conducive to training compared to the mainland, it hasn’t affected the amount of training. Training at high altitudes helps improve climbers’ endurance. Also, cross training in both the highlands and flatlands helps improve athletic ability.

Tibetan rock climbing has already produced a national-level contestant, providing great impetus to China’s rock climbing. In recent years, a Tibetan contestant has featured among the medals at almost all major domestic and international competitions. One of the leading team members, Richen Lhamo, was double champion at this year’s National Rock Climbing Championship women’s event.

Deputy Director of TAR Sports Bureau, Nyima Tsering, said: “Through hard work, Tibetan rock climbing has already produced a high quality, strong team full of talent, helping enhance Tibet’s rock climbing brand. By establishing a Tibetan rock climbing team, we aim to help make this excellent sport continue to grow bigger and stronger and also promote sports development in Tibet.

Tibet’s high altitude mountaineering is well known and has become an integral part of sport in Tibet, but rock climbing, which originated from mountaineering, has been non existent for a long time, which is inconsistent with the superior climbing resources available here. In light of this, nearly a decade ago, Tibet Mountaineering School began to focus on developing rock climbing and has achieved fruitful results.